December 14, 2017

Dude, I love shopping. And yes, I did just start this blog with “dude” because I want you to know that ALTHOUGH I am a woman and that sure, women are statistically more likely to shop than men, I am also a bro and my last online purchase was a giant bag of cocoa-dusted almonds, not clothes. Although I do periodically check the Swedish Hasbeens website because their clogs are so frickin’ cute. Okay, anyway! Onward to the actual blog post!

Instagram has always had the potential to be great for shopping. Long before they introduced their shopping tags feature, the platform’s photo-based nature already beckoned retailers to show off their stuff. Evidently, Instagram took notice, and features like the shopping tags leave both merchants and customers coming back for more. So exactly how good is Instagram for shopping?

December 7, 2017

I remember my first Facebook Live video like it was yesterday. There I was, slicing two and a half pounds of raw chicken for a giant thing of matzo ball soup, and I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be funny and weird if I went Live right now?” And went Live I did: for fifteen minutes, my phone recorded at close-up my cutting board as I silently sliced all that raw chicken. Oh, it was great. I got a lot of likes and viewers, concerned comments from my parents, but more importantly, a new appreciation for the content I produced and the ways I could produce it.

Live has since extended to Instagram and even text-based Twitter, and since there’s more to Live than just the opportunity for me to be weird on the Internet, I’ll switch gears and turn this post into an informative blog about how Live can benefit your small business. No need to bring in any raw chicken.

December 5, 2017

My mom has this amazing collection of beaded sweaters that, some years back, we attempted to sell on Etsy. I say “attempted” because there were absolutely no sales and barely any traffic, and it was mainly all our fault. You see, I was twelve-years-old at the time and thought I could do wonders with a camera, but all I managed to do was take low-quality pictures of wrinkled sweaters with bad lighting and shadows. Mom, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry. Will you still give me Hanukkah money?

Like our failed Etsy endeavor, I’ve seen so many retailers in the online world with great products but horrible execution with their presentation. For a lot of online merchants with great ideas, the design aspect of selling their product seems to fall through the cracks, and it can be the do or die of their online business. So just what exactly is the value of your store’s design, and more importantly—how can you make your store look great without breaking the bank?

November 30, 2017

Man, there’s some crazy marketing on the Internet. Twitter accounts that act the way I do online after hours and Instagram accounts that are 100% memes—it’s enough to make your head spin!

But what if I told you there was a method to all this madness? After Wendy’s sassy Twitter persona challenged a teenager from Reno, NE, to get 18 million retweets in exchange for a year’s worth of their chicken nuggets, their Twitter page saw 330 million impressions and gained 149,000 followers. Don Draper wouldn’t even know what hit him.